Simpler times: Log loaders get to work (VIDEO)

The Log Loading Competition at Maury County Park on Thursday demonstrated how timber was loaded before machines took the equines’ place. Though an annual event that builds anticipation for Mule Day, horses are also allowed to compete.

Some competitors said handlers are profiting because man-made machines can’t be topped by raw horse — and mule — power.

“(He) gets a lot of jobs because people don’t want the skidders,” fourth place winner Alan Smith said about another competitor. “They come in with a pair of horses or mules and log out a place, and other than the treetops, you hardly know they’ve been there. Everything’s ‘green’ nowadays, so they’re (being) environmentally correct.”

Smith, the Sardis resident who took home first place in last year’s competition, gestured to two young, glossy, chocolate brown Percheron horses who were waiting for their turn to compete.

“This (contest) is a good thing to show the younger generation how the older generation did,” Smith said. “Horses and mules — they don’t get a lot of credit nowadays, but we’ve built this country with horses and mules and oxen.”

While Smith has attended Mule Day festivities for the past 20 years, Allison Holt ventured to Columbia for the first time Wednesday to cheer her husband and friends on in the event. The Waverly, Ala., woman plans to stay for the Saturday parade.

“Just to see the actual strength of the horses and the mules — it’s quite surprising,” she said.

Seven teams were judged on which exhibited the best control and smoothest operation as individual logs were hitched to the animals and then dragged and loaded on a wagon. Axes were lodged in the logs — one of which weighed a ton — to keep them in place on the wagon.

It’s not a contest of speed. It’s about patience, accuracy and getting the job done.

“You’re playing a dangerous game,” announcer Mack Landrum called when two axes sliced through the air after being flung out of place from a support chain.

Landrum, who raises gaited mules in Tallassee, Ala., also sees a bright future for an age-old process.

“More and more people are realizing it’s a renewable resource. While they’re in the field, they drop the fertilizer,” he said about the equines, laughing. “But the bottom line is the piece of mind and the satisfaction you get out of doing your day’s work.”

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